On Thursday November 6, 2014 KARAMAH executive director Aisha Rahman met with a delegation of 5 Russian, Muslim leaders. Among the delegation were members of the Russia Mufti Council and the Religious Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation. As is our practice, KARAMAH shared with the delegation our work on civil rights in the US and abroad, family law and domestic violence, and most importantly our groundbreaking scholarship on Islamic law that informs the work that we do. The group, consisting of 4 female leaders and one male, was very engaged and interested in KARAMAH’s work.
One leader shared with KARAMAH that cases of domestic violence in Russia, both amongst Muslims and non-Muslims, are not highly reported. As in the United States, there are a variety of factors contributing to lack of reporting. Another leaders shared that the main issue afflicting Muslim families in Russia is polygamy–the issue being that many immigrants who come to Russia seeking work, leave their families and wives behind. They seek second or third wives in Russia, often not giving them Islamic rights (such as monetary support) and many of the immigrants abandon their second, third, fourth or temporary marriages without giving notice. KARAMAH was able to provide some education on the rights of Muslim women at marriage and at divorce and directed the leaders to our scholarship on these issues.
The conversation then shifted from family issues to broader issues affecting the Muslim community. Because these leaders head councils of religious organizations, they were quite concerned with the choosing of imams, the process that Americans go through when assessing applications and interviewing imams and other religious leaders. More generally, they also wanted to discuss with KARAMAH the role of the mosque in the U.S. Ms. Rahman shared with the group her own personal story–growing up in a small, southern town where the Muslim population was very small, her family was instrumental in building the infrastructure of the local Muslim community. This included a prayer space that eventually grew to be a mosque, securing relationships with local butchers and farms who would allow ritual slaughter at Eid ul-Adha and year round for halal meat, buying a plot in a cemetery for Muslim burial etc.
Mosques in the U.S. in the generation that Ms. Rahman’s family immigrated to the U.S. became hubs for Muslim life spreading way beyond a prayer space alone. As the community grew, Muslims would come to the mosque seeking halal meat options, how to conduct an Islamic marriage ceremony, how to facilitate a Muslim ghusl and burial etc. Because of these needs the community had and has around the country, mosques have had to re-envision their purpose–looking at models in the African American community that have accommodated the Muslim community before the more recent immigrant populations. KARAMAH is working with many mosques on this vision. KARAMAH’s priority at this time is helping mosques and religious centers with providing social services. While many mosques do not have the resources to have an office that provides social services or to hire perssonel with experience to provide social services, mosques can serve to provide referrals to organizations like KARAMAH for legal and other matters. KARAMAH also mentioned to the Russian leaders our newest effort in this regard-the Muslim Mediation Initiative. KARAMAH is training imams and other leaders in the community to resolve their conflicts peacefully and from an Islamic perspective.
This delegation, just as the ones that come before it, was educating and enlightening for KARAMAH. Speaking with and learning from Muslims all over the world informs our work and ensures that we prioritize our work according to the needs of the community. KARAMAH hopes to continue to expand its network through these meetings.
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